


A Day to Remember

by McKayRulez



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-26 07:51:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20738792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McKayRulez/pseuds/McKayRulez
Summary: Gemless Steven ends up in the wrong place... Lucky him?He's had way too much bad luck for it to make up for all the trauma he's suffered today though.





	A Day to Remember

Today is the worst day of Steven’s life. 

Everyone he knew was either brainwashed, shattered, or worse. The crystal gems, the diamonds, the off colours,.. Connie.. Everyone. 

Gemless, Steven dragged his failing body out of the Diamond mech ship. 

White was too entranced with the Pink Diamond in between her fingernails, to notice right now, but he knew it would be only a matter of time before she turned her blinding gaze onto him and finish what she started. He heard her call out in her room behind him, “Bring out the rejuvenator!” She demanded. “We’ll have Pink back to her old self in no time.” 

Soon, his crawling turned to dragging and then to clawing his way across the polished smooth hallway floors. He gritted his teeth, vision hazy and growing darker by the minute. If he didn’t already have a vague sense of which way to go, he’d probably already be lost. That was courtesy of Pearl’s emergency drills, incase things with the Diamond’s went wrong, like right now. 

Pearl… 

He squinted his eyes hard as he felt them water a little. 

No. 

He couldn’t think about her or his friends right now. 

They were all gone, with no one left to save him. There was no point in thinking about them now. This was no time to cry or scream. Not while he was being stealthy. No time to get his mind off the task of survival. This was also no time to let guilt consume him or he might as well give up now. 

His heart burned and thudded painfully in his chest, but he kept crawling. 

When he reached the warp pad, he suddenly realized that this was really it. There was no one, let alone no place, he could go to now. Going back to Earth would just make the planet even more of a target right now than it already was. Besides, no one could actually help him there. 

As the self pity and hopelessness finally won over the feeling in his chest, he lowered head and finally allowed himself to sob. 

Through his tears, eventually, a thought occurred to him. 

Maybe his mothers fountain would help heal him? He knew it wasn’t a stopping point. He couldn’t stay on Earth and endanger it, but he needed to be healed enough to come up with his next plan. Let alone able enough to actually keep going.

He remembered the place full of brambles that burst into a rain of roses. It was like an overgrown garden. 

He crawled up onto the platform and thought, ‘Pink’s Fountain’. 

Maybe if he hadn’t been constantly compared to and referred to as Pink Diamond on Homeworld, maybe he would have thought ‘Roses fountain.’ Probably not though, given this was coupled with the fact that he really knew she was his mother. 

So instead of being taken to “Rose’s Fountain”.. 

He was taken elsewhere…. 

\--

She knows every planet and pin prick of light.  
She’s memorized every phase they go through, as they rotate in their planetary systems.  
She’s observed flowers budding, blooming, wilting, and dying.  
She’s witnessed stone crack and crumble to dust.  
She’s watched roots grow and snake out from the crust.  
She’s stared at caterpillars which transform into butterflies.  
She’s seen everything change around her, but experienced none of it herself.  
She believes it doesn’t matter if she hasn’t lived it.  
She took part in it vicariously, through her observations.  
She thinks she has seen everything already.  
She knows nothing can surprise her anymore.  
She’s mistaken. 

There’s a flash of light from the warp pad. 

She freezes for a moment in shock. Then once it passes she feels like her heart will burst. 

There’s a mound on the pad. It isn’t moving. It’s as still as she is. 

Her mind races. 

Was this part of the game? 

What was she supposed to do? 

Standing still was the only rule she knew so far! 

She starts to hear sobbing. 

She starts to shake afraid. She feels a tightening in her chest, as she dares to look at the ground in front of her. Anxiety and dread filling her being. Wondering if she could take the first step. 

The voice in the back of her head taunts that she’ll lose the game if she does. 

She balls her fists as the sobs grew quieter and quieter, until they finally stop. 

She tenses then. 

What was she doing? She chastises herself. She was suppose to be a friend, and someone clearly needed a friend right now! 

She casts one last worried glances at the space in front of her feet, before pushing all doubt aside and takes the first step. 

Overgrown vines try to root her to the spot, but they snap at her insistence. As soon as they snapped,, it was like her chains were broken. A curse lifted. She ran to the warp pad full sprint. As soon as she made it to the top, she stopped and stared. 

A creature, the likes of which she had never seen before, lay curled in a ball. Quiet and unmoving. Horror filled her being. Was she too late? Was it dead? 

So much of everything Spinel had seen had been death, so it wasn’t hard to imagine. 

She wanted to scream and hurt herself, no, shatter herself for her mistake. 

She had chosen a game over a new friend. How sick was that? 

She was a horrible friend. A horrible gem. A horrible being. 

She pushed away the thoughts of shattering, telling herself she was still being selfish and flawed. Instead, she dropped down to the creatures side. 

“Are you okay?” She flinched. The sound of her own voice was unfamiliar at this point. So long suffering in silence. She pushed it away for now and resumed her gaze on the being. “Hey?.. Are you alive?” She gently laid a hand on it’s back. She paused and flexed her fingers over cloth. Feeling! Her mind lit up. She was feeling something! 

The creature’s eyelids fluttered, but only just. “Fountain.” It barely states over a whisper. The creatures eyelids closed and she felt the body grow even more limp under her touch. 

Okay, so the thing was alive!.. If only barely… 

She glanced over at the cracked fountain curious, then looked back at the creature. 

She had to take care of it, she decided, as she made her limbs expand and widen enough to pick up the being easier, to take to the fountain. 

Her mind was reeling. She told herself she’d nurse her new playmate back to health! Yes! That’s what she’d do! 

After all, having a new creature to watch and tend to, would give her something to do while she waited for her Pink’s return! She’d just concede that she lost the game, when Pink gets back, but surprise her with this new curious creature as a gift! 

Today is the best day Spinel’s had in six thousand years!


End file.
